Firearm and intimate partner violence is a preventable tragedy

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OPINION – Firearm violence is a preventable tragedy that California has worked hard to address with strong firearm safety laws. Yet beneath those surface achievements lies a critical blind spot: we don’t have the data we need to understand, and prevent, firearms-related deaths due to intimate partner violence (IPV).

Trying to address this blind spot is the California Violent Death Reporting System (CalVDRS), California’s component of the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS). NVDRS/CalVDRS links death certificates, law enforcement reports, and medical examiner or coroner data, to build a rich, anonymized portrait of violent deaths. This system is for understanding why, how, and who is most impacted by violent deaths. Across the country, this kind of data has catalyzed tangible prevention and intervention work, from more visible suicide hotlines and safety barriers installed at railway platforms, to expanded mental health services in schools.

While county participation in CalVDRS is voluntary, only 35 of California’s 58 counties share data with the system. As a result, CalVDRS is missing much-needed detail in approximately 30% of the state’s total violent deaths. Yet even if some counties are participating, the vast majority are not documenting, or are undercounting, a relationship with IPV in their death reports. These gaps in data collection mean we are not capturing the full scope or impact of IPV violence across the state.

This gap isn’t a technical glitch; it’s a profound moral failing. When participating counties undercount IPV firearm deaths and when whole counties are absent from the data, we perpetuate the myth that firearm homicides mostly result from urban “street violence.” That myth allows IPV in rural spaces, or among partners and families, to be uncounted, misclassified, or ignored. In addition, public narratives and funding skew away from domestic violence interventions when IPV-related firearm deaths are undercounted. When data fails to reflect the true extent of intimate partner firearm violence, resources are more likely to be directed toward broad strategies like general law enforcement – missing critical opportunities to invest in long-term, community-centered solutions to prevent harm.

Policymakers and communities cannot act on what remains unseen. When coroner or law enforcement offices fail to document or report circumstances, especially when IPV is involved, we lose the ability to craft prevention strategies that match reality. Instead, we get generic, misaligned interventions and underfunded survivor supports.

California must act by requiring mandatory participation in CalVDRS by every county. We must also strengthen incentives and support for academic, public health, coroners, and law enforcement agencies to collect and share complete, disaggregated data (gender, race, age, and geography) to better understand who is most affected and where interventions are most needed. We must be clear; this isn’t just question of funding. The California Department of Public Health already facilitates CalVDRS operations and provides support for data sharing. What’s missing is accountability, ethics, and commitment.

Imagine what we could do with complete data:

• Deploy culturally specific domestic violence programs in communities most impacted.
• Expand emergency housing, legal aid, and wraparound supports for IPV victims.
• Strengthen and ensure enforcement of firearm relinquishment under protective orders.
• Invest in early prevention in places that often go unnoticed because they aren’t large or visible.

This is not simply about better data; it’s about gender equity, racial justice, and human dignity. Firearms dramatically raise risk of death in IPV contexts. When those deaths are hidden, the most vulnerable, especially women of color, are left behind.

So let us build the infrastructure for systematic and timely violent death data. Let us hold our systems accountable, not tomorrow, but now. Because when data is neglected, lives are lost.

For more information, please read the white paper, Gender Inequities: The Erasure of Women’s Lives Through the Absence of Data. To find out more about CalVDRS and whether data surrounding violent deaths in your county are being captured, reach out to the CalVDRS team at [email protected]

Brian Malte is the Executive Director of the Hope and Heal Fund based in California. Jennifer Becker is the Director of the National Center on Gun Violence and Relationships for the Battered Women’s Justice Project.